Restricting building heights is one of the hot topics of the general community, particularly when new Planning Schemes are being written. But what happens when your design forces you to exceed the height allowance?

We regularly come across people who want to convert their existing shed into shed houses. Sometimes they have already been converted into a shed houses but there is no building approval. But what many don’t realise, is that there is a lot more to converting a shed to a house than just changing the appearance and fitting it out with a sweet interior.

We have all, at some time, been lucky enough to stay a night at the dreaded “Highway Motel” where the constant noise from the passing cars and trucks has left you about 39 shy of the required 40 winks. So why is this lucky?

Let’s look at another hypothetical situation: You’ve just completed the design of your development project. All costing has been finalised, the project has an agreed budget, and the landowner is happy and has signed off on the design.

But wait, building assessment provisions have suddenly changed. This means a major redesign of the development, an increase in the project’s budget, and most likely, an unhappy client. So what do you do?

Congratulations! You’ve just received your Material Change of Use (MCU) approval from the council for your building project and you’ve subsequently applied for building approval with your building certifier. Seeing as you already have planning approval, it should be all smooth sailing from here right? Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

A Building Certifier is a professional person with broad knowledge and experience in building legislation, design, materials and construction. A Building Certifier is not necessarily specialists in any particular building field other than the law, and are rather like the General Practitioners of the building industry.